Old Navy T-shirt proclaims Texans as 1961 AFC champions

As a fashion statement, Texans fans might get a kick out of the team’s new T-shirt produced by Old Navy.

As a historical artifact, however, it leaves something to be desired.

One of a series of NFL shirts produced this year by Old Navy, the Texans logo shirt proclaims that the team was “1961 AFC Champions.” In fact, it was the Oilers, now the Tennessee Titans, that won the 1960 and 1961 championships of the American Football League, the precursor to the modern AFC. The Texans did not debut until 2002.

Employees at Old Navy stores in Houston apparently got wind of the problem as early as Saturday. Only one Texans shirt remained available on a mannequin at the company’s Meyerland Plaza store.

When a customer purchased it, the sales clerk said, “You know this is wrong, don’t you?” When he replied that he did, the clerk said, “I bought one, too. I knew they’d find the error and pull them off the shelves.”

There were other problems with the NFL T-shirt line, which is available in local Old Navy stores and on the company’s website. The Cleveland Browns shirt proclaimed the Browns as 1964 AFC champions; the Browns, who now play in the AFC, won the NFL title that year.

Also, shirts for the New York Jets and Kansas City Chiefs proclaimed them as NFL champions for the 1968 and 1969 seasons. Both won Super Bowls that year, but they did so as members of the AFL.

The Texans shirt was still listed on the Old Navy website Monday afternoon but was not available to be ordered. The Browns shirt also was removed, as was a shirt identifying the Detroit Lions as winners of the 1957 NFC title. The Lions won the 1957 NFL title before the post-merger creation of the NFC.

“The NFL clothing sold in our Old Navy stores is created by a third party sports licensing company,” said Edie Kissko, a spokesperson for Gap Inc., which owns the Old Navy brand, in a statement to ESPN.com. “It is our intention to always provide the best merchandise to our customers and NFL fans. We apologize for this error and are removing the T-shirts.”

Old Navy last year had to pull several thousand college logo T-shirts off shelves because they read “Lets Go”, without the apostrophe.